


Perchance to dream

by pterawaters



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Hale Family Feels, Psychic Abilities, The Hale Fire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 17:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/827019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek didn't mean to nod off during home room, but he'll be eternally grateful he did. And so will his family, if his warning can get to them in time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perchance to dream

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about the pretentious title. I am bad at titling and this was the first one to pop into my head.

It happens in home room. Derek had been out past curfew, and awake even later, so he nods off. The dream is so vivid, so horrific that Derek wakes up with the scent of seared flesh in his nostrils. Everyone is staring at him and Derek realizes he must have screamed.

Mrs. Wheeler asks, "Derek? Are you okay?" Derek's left the room before she's finished speaking. He sprints through the empty hall to his locker, slamming into the bank of them so hard the entire door of Jenny Hammond's locker caves in. Derek had been planning on fumbling with his lock, but now that one locker is ruined, he doesn't hesitate to rip the door off his. 

Derek reaches into the outer pocket of his backpack, searching for his phone, but it's not there. His phone is always there! He always puts it in _that_ pocket during school! Where the fuck did it go?

Growling in frustration, Derek pulls his backpack out of his locker and tips it out onto the floor. Pen caps and papers scatter all over the hallway and miraculously, Derek's phone clatters to the ground. He snatches it up and dials as he runs down the hallway, jumps down the stairwell in two big leaps, and sprints out the side door. 

Derek's mother answers on the third tortuous ring. "Forget someth–"

"Leave!" he cries, dimly aware of Laura catching up behind him. "Get everyone out of the house!"

Voice much more serious now, Mom asks, "Derek, sweetie, what's wrong?"

"Just get everyone out of the house, Mama! _Please!_ " 

Derek can't understand why he's running so slow. Why is he running so slow? He should be twice as far away from the school and toward home by now!

"We're going," Mom assures Derek, and over the line he can hear her moving, hear the orders she gives to Uncle Peter and Grandma. "We're out of the house."

"Everyone?" Derek asks, staggering when Laura catches up and knocks into him. She gives him a questioning look as they run side-by-side, but Derek waves her off.

"...nine, ten, eleven. You and your sister make thirteen. That's everyone outside, baby. What's going on?"

Before Derek can answer, he hears a loud boom over the phone, and then a few seconds later the same explosion thunders through the woods, in the direction on their house. "No! Mama!" he cries into the phone, redoubling his efforts to get back to his family in time. "Mama?"

Laura drops onto all fours and quickly leaves Derek behind. He'd follow, but he's still desperately clenching his phone to his ear. There's a sharp breath on the other end of the line and then Derek hears his mother's howl.

Phone in pocket and hands on the ground, it takes Derek a moment to realize his mother's howl was her standard calling-out howl, not one of alarm. Voices rise up to answer hers, and Derek can make out all seven other wolves, including Laura. 

Derek howls with relief as he reaches the clearing around the house, seeing his family safe, watching the blaze consuming their home. He crosses the distance in an instant and throws himself into his mother's arms. "Mama!"

"It's okay," she insists, shoving her nose against Derek's neck and breathing deeply, her arms steel-strong around his shoulders. "You did good, baby. Everyone's okay."

A twig snaps a hundred yards away, barely audible over the raging roar of the fire. Half of the group turn their heads and as soon as Derek's mother nods, Peter, Mandy, Ginger, and Laura all take off in that direction.

While they're gone, Derek's mom tilts his head up so he'll look in her eyes. "How did you know?"

"I..." Derek begins, not sure what to say. It sounds crazy now that he thinks about it. He had a dream, a horrible nightmare, and it came _true_! He shudders at the thought of what would have happened if he'd ignored his dream, if he'd told himself it was just a nightmare. "I fell asleep in home room," Derek admits.

A careful, almost concerned smile spreads across his mother's lips. She waves Derek's father over from where he's consoling Derek's little cousins. "Kev," she says with a little laugh, pulling her husband closer with a hand on his. "Our son takes after your side of the family more than we thought. He had a _dream_!"

Derek's father looks surprised, but after a second, his expression slides toward pleased. "Really?" He puts a hand on Derek's shoulder and squeezes. He's probably squeezing almost as hard as he can, but he knows it's an amount Derek finds comfortable, not painful. After all, Derek's father is human, drawn into the world of werewolves when Peter was bitten. "That's amazing!"

Confused, Derek looks from his father to his mother and back again. "What? What do you mean?"

Derek's mother leaves them, heading over to check on everyone else. His father slings an arm over Derek's shoulder and says, "My mother used to have dreams. Important ones like you had this morning. True dreams. She knew Peter was going to get bitten, but we couldn't stop it in time."

"She was..." Derek paused, looking for the right word. "She was psychic?"

Before Derek gets an answer, his sister, aunt, uncle, and cousin arrive back in the clearing. The blazing house is hot on the back of Derek's neck, and he thinks it's probably hiding the flush of shame he feels. Their prisoner is Kate Argent, the woman Derek broke curfew to see the night before. He smells the gasoline on her and hates her in an instant, feeling so betrayed he actually sways on his feet.

"You did this?" Derek hears sirens and a few big vehicles turning down the gravel road that leads to their house. "Why?"

As if she isn't being held tight by Peter and Laura, Kate grins. It's that same impish grin that made Derek want to be close to her in the first place. "Oh, sweetie. I just can't suffer monsters to live, now can I?"

Derek's mother growls at Kate while pushing Derek behind her. Derek accepts being pushed back. It's his fault Kate found the house, he should be hiding behind his mother, behind his alpha, ashamed. Mom's words lisp a little around her fangs. "I should rip your throat out and send it back to your father in a box."

Kate's eyes light up and Derek realizes she must have been this crazy the entire time he's known her. "Ooh! Do it!"

Derek's mother laughs. "And give your code-following brethren cause to come after us? I don't think so. I'd rather let the authorities take care of you." The sound of the sirens has been steadily growing to the point where it makes Derek uncomfortable. He breathes and tries to adjust his focus and dampen the noise that way, but suddenly his mother is weeping and holding Derek close to her chest. A fire engine drives into the clearing followed by a police car.

The firefighters go to work right away putting out the remains of the house, while the police officer approaches Derek's dad, like he's the one in charge. "Is there anyone left inside?"

"No," Derek's father replies, his voice almost drowned out by the dramatic wail Derek's mother gives.

"My house! Oh, God! My babies could have been in there!" Derek fights the urge to roll his eyes. Her "baby" is Derek and he's fifteen years old. "Thank heaven we saw that murderer," she points to Kate, "messing around and got everyone out before it blew! Officer, you _have_ to arrest her!"

For all Derek thinks his mother's show is absurd, it works. The police officer falls all over herself trying to comfort Derek's mother and tells her partner to put Kate in handcuffs. Derek watches her go and tries not to get sick at the thought of what almost happened.

By the time the fire gets put out, it's clear that it won't be livable any time soon. Uncle Peter and his family will just go back to their territory up north, but the Beacon Hills pack will need to live elsewhere for the time being. As Derek's mom and Aunt Rita pull belongings out of the wreckage, under Derek's father's worried eye, Laura sits down next to Derek.

She doesn't say anything, which is so odd that Derek actually finds the silence offputting. Feeling the need to fill the strange silence, he says, "I'm sorry."

Laura shrugs. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure Walter Kearns stole your graphing calculator."

Derek can't quite laugh, but he does surprise himself by snorting.

Laura grins at Derek and throws her arm around his shoulders, squeezing so tightly it's more painful than comforting. "Tell ya what, Derek. You dream me up a boyfriend, and we'll call it even."

Derek does laugh that time and makes a mental note to ask his dad how this whole psychic thing was supposed to work. Could he dream things so hard, they'd actually become true? If that is the case, Derek thinks he'll work on dreaming _himself_ a boyfriend first. His latest girlfriend has sort of put him off women for awhile.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm over [on tumblr](pterawaters.tumblr.com), if you want to say hi.


End file.
